What is psychology

Any knowledge discipline is hard to define. Firstly because it

evolves continuously. Secondly , because the range of
phenomena it studies cannot be captured by any one definition.
The term psychology is derived from two greek words psyche
meaning soul and logos meaning science or study of a subject.
Thus psychology was a study of soul or mind. But since then it has
moved away considerably from this focus and established itself
as a scientific discipline which deal with processes underlying
human experience and behaviour.
Psychology is defined formally as a science which studies mental
processes ,experiences and behaviour in different contexts.

Mental processes:- mental processes are activities of the

mind and brain related to cognition mental process include
memory emotion , perception , imagination ,thinking and
reasoning.

Experiences :- is refer to conscious events in general more

specifically to perception to the practical knowledge and
familiarity that is produced by these processes . experiences are
subjective in nature. We can directly observe or know someone
else’s experience. Only the experiencing person can be aware or
be conscious of her or his experiences
Bereavement:- overall experience of family member and friends
in the periods before during and after the death of love ones
Esoteric experiences :- when a yogi meditates to enter a
different level pf consciousness and creates a new kind of
experiences is know as esoteric experiences
The nature of experience can only be understood by analysing a
complex set of internal and external conditions.

Behaviours :- are responses or reaction we make or activities

we engage in.
Or
The potential and expressed capacity of human individual or
group to respond to internal and external stimuli through out their
life
When something is hurled at you, your eyes blink in a simple
reflex action. You are taking an examination and can feel your
heart pounding. You decide to go for a particular movie with a
friend.
Behaviour may be simple or complex short or enduring
Overt behaviour :- means apparent or visible blinking of eyes
when something is hurled at a person.
Covert behaviour :-means hidden or concealed example
pounding of heart during an interview
Psychologist study behaviour as an association between stimulus
and response both stimulus and response cam be internal or
external
Stimulus :- a stimulus is anything that can trigger a physical or
behavioural change
Or
A stimulus is any object or events that elicits a sensory or
behavioural response in an organism.
Psychology as a discipline
• it seeks to understand and explain how the mind
works and how different mental processes
result in different behaviours.
• When we observe others as lay or common
persons. Our own points of view or our ways of
understanding the worlds influence our
interpretations of their behaviours and
experiences.
• Psychologist try to minimise such biases
explanation of behaviour and experiences in
various ways .
• some do so by seeking to make their analysis
scientific and objective
• other seek to explain behaviour from the point of
view of the experiencing person because they
think that subjectivity is necessary aspect of
human experience.
• In the Indian tradition self reflection and
analysis of our conscious experiences is held a
major source of psychological understanding.
• Many western psychologist have also begun to
emphasise the role of self reflection and self
 knowledge in understanding human behaviour
and experience.
• Regardless of the differences in the way
psychologists go about the study of behaviour
mental processes and experiences they seek to
understand and explain the in a systematic and
verifiable manner.
• Psychology is a very old knowledge discipline , is
a young science , if one were to take the year of
the founding of the first laboratory of psychology
in 1879 in Leipzig.
• What kind of science is psychology is still
remains a matter of debate particularly because
of the new interfaces of it that have emerged in
recent times.
• Psychology is generally categorised as a social
science .
• But it should not come to you as a surprise that
not only in other countries but in India also it is
also a subject offered in the faculty of science
both graduate and post graduate levels.
• Many students go on to earn a [Link] or [Link]
degree in universities.
• In fact two of the most sought after emerging
discipline which continuously borrow from
psychology are neurosciences and computer
science.
• This approach of psychology consider them as
a natural science
• On the other hand psychology as a social
science focuses on how behavioural
phenomena can be explained in term of the
interaction that takes place between the person
and the socio cultural context .
Popular Notion about the discipline
• Almost everyone of us acts like a psychologist
we try to understand why someone behaved in
the manner in which she /he did and came up
with ready explanation.
• Not only the most of us have developed our own
theory of human behaviour
• If we want worker to perform better then she /he
has in the past we know that we will need to
push he /him may be even use a stick because
people are basically lazy.
• Such popular theories of human behaviour are
based on common sense they may or may not
be true investigated scientifically.
• In fact you will find that common sense of
explanation of human behaviour are based on
hindsight and explain every little
• Hindsight :- understanding of a situation or
events only it has happened or developed.
• Example :- if a friend you love goes away to
distant place what will happen to your attraction
for her /him. There are two sayings which you
may recall to answer this questions
• Out of sight out of mind
 • Distance makes the heart grow fonder
• Both of one is opposite statement so which one
is true .
• The explanation you choose will depend on what
happens in your life after your friends leaves
• Suppose your are able to find a new friends the
saying out of sight out of mind
• If you are unable to find a new friend you will
keep remembering your friend. In this case the
saying distance makes heart grow fonder
• Notice that in both cases the explanation follow
the occurrence of behaviour Common sense is
based on hindsight
• Psychology a s science looks for pattern of
behaviour which can be predicted and not
explained after the behaviour occurs
Dweek conducted a study a children who gave up
easily! When faced with the difficult problem
Common sense tell us to given them easily problem
in order to increase their success rate so that their
confidence goes up
Take two group to train them to solve mathematic
problem
Easy question for first group and easy and difficult
problem for 2nd group. Obviously in case of difficult
problems they failed whenever this happened dweck
told them that their failure was because they had
not tried hard enough and persuaded them not to
give up and keep trying.
After the training period was over a new set of math
problem were given to two groups.
Dweck found goes against common belief.
Those who had always succeeded because they
were given easy problem gave up much faster when
they faced failure then those who had experience of
both success and failure to their lack of effort.
Psychology is not based on common sense they
were different.
Evolution of psychology
Psychology as a modern discipline which is influenced to
large extent by western development has a short histroy.
• It grew out of ancient philosophy concerned with
questions of psychological significance
• We mentioned earlier that formal beginning of
modern psychology is traced back to 1879 when the
first experimental laboratory was established in
leipzig university of germany by wilhelim wundt
• Wundt was interested in the study of conscious
experience and wanted to analysis the constituents
or building block of mind
Structuralism approach :- psychologist Wundt was
interested in the study of conscious experience and
wanted to analysed the structure of mind through
introspection and therefore is called structuralist
Introspection:- intro – within spection means -
looking
Introspection is the examination of ones own
conscious thought and feeling. In psychology the
process of introspection relies on the observation of
ones mental state , while in a spiritual context if may
refer to the examination of ones soul. Introspection
 is closely related to human self reflection and self
discovery
• Structuralism was further developed by wundt
student Edward. B Titchener
• He translated the first volume of wundt famous
text principles of physiological psychology from
German into english.
• Titchener believed that by systematically
defining and categorizing the elements of the
mind research could understand the structure
of mental processes.
Functionalist approach :-A American psychologist
William james, who had set up a psychological
laboratory in Cambridge. William james believed
that instead of focusing on the structure of mind
,psychology should instead study what the mind
does and how behaviour functions in making people
deal with their enviroment.
• Functionalist focused on how behaviour
enabled people to satisfy their needs.
• According to William James, consciousness as an
ongoing stream of mental process as an ongoing
stream of mental process interacting with the
enviroment formed the core psychology.
Gestalt psychology :- in the early 20th century a new
perspective called gestalt psychology emerged in
Germany as a reaction to the structuralism of Wundt. It
focused on the organisation of perceptual experiences.
Instead of look at the components of the mind, the
gestalt psychologist argued that when we look at the
world our perceptual experience is more then the
sum of components of the perception.
Father of gestalt psychology :- max Wertheimer
Other psychologist related to gestalt
Kurt koffka
Wolfgang kohler
Kurt lewin
Behaviourism :- 1910 john Watson rejected the
idea of mind and consciousness as subject matter
of psychology
He was greatly influenced by the work or
physiologist like Ivan Pavlov on classical
conditioning.
 For Watson mind is not observable and
introspection is subjective because it cannot be
verified by another observe.
According to him scientific psychology must focus
on what is observable and verifiable
Study of behaviour or response which can be
measured and study objectively .
Psychoanalysis:- one person who shook the world
with his radical view of human nature was Sigmund
Freud. Freud viewed human behaviour as a dynamic
manifestation of unconscious desire and conflicts.
He founded psychoanalysis as a system to
understand and cure psychological disorders. While
Freudian psychoanalysis viewed human beings as
motivated by unconscious desire for gratification of
pleasure seeking desire.

Humanistic perspective :- in psychology took a

more positive view of human nature humanists such
as carl rogers and Abraham Maslow emphasised the
free will of human beings and their natural striving to
grow and unfold their inner potential. They argued
that behaviourism with its emphasis on behaviour as
determined by environmental conditions undermines
human freedom and dignity and takes a mechanistic
view of human nature.
Cognitive perspective of psychology :-
cognition is the process of knowing .it involves
thinking, understanding ,perceiving,
memorising and problem solving
• It is a host of other mental processes by which
our knowledge of world develops and make us
able to deal with enviroment.
• Cognitive psychology views human beings as
actively constructing their mind through their
exploration into the physical and social world.
This view is something called constructivism.
• Piaget view of child development is
considered as constructivist theory of
development of mind.
• Another Russian psychologist Vygotsky
suggested that the human mind develop
 through social and cultural process. In this
view the mind is viewed as culturally
constructed through joint interaction
between adults and children.
• For piaget children actively construct their
own mind while Vygotsky view that mind is
joint cultural construction it emerges as a
result of interaction between children and
adults

Development of psychology in India

The development of psychology as a discipline
India continue to be dominated by western
psychology
• The modern era of Indian psychology began
in the department of philosophy 1916 at
 Calcutta university here the first syllabus of
experimental psychology was introduced
and the first psychology laboratory was
established 1915
• Calcutta university started the first
department of psychology in 1916 and
another department of applied psychology
in 1938 in Calcutta
• The beginning of modern experimental
psychology of calcutta university was
greatly influenced by the Indian
psychologist Dr Narender Nath Sengupta
who was trained in USA in the experimental
tradition of Wilhelm Wundt.
• Professor G Bose was trained in Freudian
psychoanalysis. He established Indian
psychoanalytic association in 1922.
• Department of psychology in the university
of Mysore and Patna were other early
centre teaching and research in psychology.
• There are two centres of excellence in
psychology supported by the ugc at utkal
 university Bhubaneshwar and in the
university Allahabad about 70 universities in
India offer courses in psychology
• Durganand Sinha in his book psychology in
a third world country the Indian experience
published in 1986 traces the history of
modern psychology as a social science in
India in four phase
• First phase :- the phase remain till 1947
independence it was a phase with
emphasis on experimental psychoanalytic
and psychological testing research it
primarily reflected the development of the
discipline in western countries.
• Second phase:- Till 1960 was a phase of
expansion of psychology in India into
different branches of psychology. During
this phase Indian psychologist showed a
desire to have an Indian identity by seeking
to link western psychology to the Indian
context.
• Third phase :- Post 1960s phase of problem-
oriented research. Psychologists became
more focused on addressing the problems
of the Indian society. Further ,the limitations
of excessive dependence on western
psychology for our social context were also
realised.
• Fourth phase :- phase of indigenisation late
1970 besides rejecting the western
framework Indian psychologist stressed the
need developing and understanding phase
on a frame work which was culturally and
socially relevant. This trend was also
reflected in some attempts to develop
psychological approaches based on
traditional Indian psychology. Thus this
phase is characterised by development in
indigenous psychology which originated
from the Indian cultural context and was
relevant for society and Indian psychology
based on the Indian traditional knowledge
system.
• Psychology in India is now being applied in
diverse professional areas. Not only have
psychologist been working with children
having special problems they employed in
hospital as clinical psychologist in
corporate organisations in the HRD and
advertising departments in sports
directorate in the development sector and
in IT industry.